Ten biblical instructions that imply essential conditions to effective prayer:
1) Pray to the Heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9). This condition to prayer might seem obvious, but it’s important. We don’t pray to false gods, to ourselves, to angels, to Buddha, or to the Virgin Mary. We pray to the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and His Spirit who indwells us. Coming to Him as our “Father” implies that we are first His children—made so by faith in Christ (John 1:12).
2) Pray for good things (Matthew 7:11). We don’t always understand or recognize what is “good”, but God knows, and He is eager to give His children what is best for them. Paul prayed three times to be healed of an affliction, and each time God said, “No.” Why would a loving God refuse to heal Paul? Because God had something better for him, namely, a life lived by grace. Paul stopped praying for healing and began to rejoice in his weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). Pray for God’s goodness in your life and the life of others.
3) Pray for needful things (Philippians 4:19). Placing a priority on God’s kingdom is one of the conditions to prayer (Matthew 6:33). The promise is that God will supply all our needs, not all our wants. There is a difference and God makes this known as He supplies.
4) Pray from a righteous heart (James 5:16). The Bible speaks of having a clean conscience as a condition to answered prayer (Hebrews 10:22). It is important that we keep our sins confessed to the Lord. “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (Psalm 66:18).
5) Pray from a grateful heart (Philippians 4:6). An essential element of prayer is an attitude of thanksgiving, mindful of Whom it is we are addressing.
6) Pray according to the will of God (1 John 5:14). An important condition to prayer is that it is prayed within the will of God. Jesus prayed this way all the time, even in Gethsemane: “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Certainly lift care, concerns and desires to God, but be willing to accept the results as His reply.
7) Pray in the authority of Jesus Christ (John 16:24). Jesus is the reason we are able to approach the throne of grace (Hebrews 10:19–22), and He is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). A condition to prayer is that we pray in His name, keeping God and His will front and center.
8) Pray persistently (Luke 18:1). In fact, pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). One of the conditions to effective prayer is that we don’t give up seeking His will as opposed to our own.
9) Pray unselfishly (James 4:3). Our motives are important as God knows them (Psalm 139:1-2). God also knows our desire to please Him (Psalm 37:23) and responds.
10) Pray in faith (James 1:6). Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), who alone can do the impossible (Luke 1:37). Without faith, why pray?
Joshua’s prayer for the sun to stand still, as audacious as that request was, met all these conditions of prayer (Joshua 10:12–14). Elijah’s prayer for rain to be withheld—and his later prayer that rain would fall—met all of these conditions (James 5:17–18). Jesus’ prayer as He stood before the tomb of Lazarus met all of these conditions (John 11:41). They all prayed to God, according to His will, for good and necessary things, in faith.
The examples of Joshua, Elijah, and Jesus teach us that, when our prayers line up with God’s sovereign will, wonderful things will happen. There’s no need to be abashed by mountains, for they can move (Mark 11:23). The struggle we face is in getting our prayers lined up with God’s will, having our desires match His. Congruency between God’s will and our own is the goal. We want exactly what He wants; nothing more, nothing less. And we don’t want anything that He doesn’t want.
Godly, effective prayer has conditions, and God invites us to pray. When can we pray big? When we believe God wants something big. When can we pray audaciously? When we believe God wants something audacious. When should we pray? All the time.